Configuring Active Surveys

Active Ping Surveys

The end-to-end network performance testing (Ping) is always made with the wireless network adapter that is currently associated with the network. Typically it is the laptop's integrated Wi-Fi network adapter, but you may also use external adapter such as an 802.11ac adapter. Before you start the survey, make sure wireless network adapter is connected to the Wi-Fi network to be able to measure the network performance. To connect, use Windows Wi-Fi Management tool.

By default, Ekahau Site Survey pings the Default Gateway. You can change the Ping Host by clicking the Mini Ping View. To ensure the defined Ping Host replies to ping, click the Start button. It is not necessary to leave the Ping enabled as ESS will enable it automatically when you start recording Hybrid Surveys.

When performing simultaneous passive and active surveys, the passive measurements are always made with the fully supported adapter such as Ekahau NIC-300-USB

Active Throughput Surveys

Similar to the ping survey, the throughput survey is always performed with the wireless network adapter that is associated to the network, this is typically the internal laptop NIC.

To collect active survey data, you must have a NIC collecting passive survey data in addition to the internal NIC for active survey data. For example Ekahau Sidekick or SA-1 adapter in passive mode in addition to the internal NIC in throughput mode.

To be able to perform throughput surveys, you will need to host an iPerf (v2 or v3) throughput server against the active measurements are done. You can download Ekahau's Throughput Server (iPerf v3) implementation at www.ekahau.com/throughput. For more information on how to use the Ekahau Throughput Server, please refer to Ekahau Throughput Server documentation page.

Ekahau Site Survey officially only supports Ekahau's own iPerf server implementation. We have found several severe defects on the official iPerf server (both v2 and v3) which has been fixed in Ekahau Throughput Server!

Ekahau Site Survey performs active Ping surveys by default. To perform throughput surveys, click on the Adapter and Channel Config icon in the top right hand side corner and in the Devices window and select Throughput from the drop down for the active adapter.

To configure the throughput test parameters, click on the Configure cartwheel button. The following parameters can be set:

Buffer Length: The length of buffers to read or write - Corresponds to the "-l" command line option

Cycle: The time in seconds how long each test cycle runs - Corresponds to the "-t" command line option

Rate Limit: The bandwidth to send at - Corresponds to the "-b" command line option

When you are performing active Stop-and-Go throughput surveys, the sampling time is always at least the Cycle time defined in the active survey configuration.

Once you have set your active throughput configuration, you can ensure it is working by clicking on the Play button next to the adapter performing the throughput tests in the Devices-menu . When you start the actual site survey, the application will automatically start the active throughput test from the beginning. There is no need to separately initiate the active measurements while performing the surveys.

If your throughput tests are running correctly, it should look something like this!

Finally, once you are done with the throughput surveys, you can analyze test results in details simply by hovering the mouse cursor over the survey path or sample point. The throughput test path will be highlighted with green color in case of successful measurements and with red color if the test has failed for some reason.